The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s3.21

c24.s3.21

Rudradāman I, a learned and accomplished prince, who thus raised his house to the position of the leading power in the West, was the grandson of the great Satrap Chashtaṇa, whose coins in silver and copper, inscribed with Greek, Brahmī, and Kharoshṭhī legends, are found in Gujarāt. The events of Chashtaṇa's reign are not on record, but his approximate date is easily ascertained from the facts that his grandson is known to have been reigning in A. D. 130 and 150. Chashtaṇa, therefore, may be placed in the period from about A. D. 80 to 110. These dates imply that Chashtaṇa held his office as Great Satrap under the Kushān dynasty, that is to say, under Kadphises II, according to my chronology.² The Saka satraps of Surāshtra and Mālwa naturally followed the examples of their Kushān sovereigns by using the Saka era, then newly established. The abundance of dated coins and inscriptions permits of no doubt as to the outlines of the chronology of the dynasty founded by Chashtana, the history of which will be further noticed in connexion with the Gupta kings.